We left Friday morning. Smooth water (well, reasonably smooth) on the way there.
We went diving Friday at the Sapona. I got a nice pic of that wreck before, which is sticking out of the water. It's super-super shallow... Most people just snorkel it. But it turned out to be a really, really nice dive. I got pictures, so I'll have to post them.
We swam back to the boat underwater, and while inspecting a conch shell right by the anchor, I noticed that not only did it have a conch in it, but there was a SEA HARE hiding next to it. In front of our anchor, so it would've dragged right over them. Eeeeh! I so don't like anchoring, for this reason. So I lugged the anchor to be in front of them underwater so we wouldn't hurt 'em. And I was so delighted that I got to see another sea hare - I had only seen one once, on a night dive in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, years ago.
Yesterday we got up later than we should've... I didn't have much sleep the night before and Chris always is too nice with letting me sleep in, so yeah... Anyway, got out on the water finally. It was beautiful. We went on a dive at Tuna Alley. The current was ripping, so it wasn't as relaxing as I like it, but it was still interesting, as dives always are. The safety stop was a bit tough, having to hold onto the mooring line. Chris had gone out in the open water to do his and he started to get pulled away from me, which made me nervous, so I held out my hand. I was holding the rope with one hand and his hand with the other. After about a minute of this, I had to point to the rope so he'd grab on since my arm was ready to pop out of its socket. CURRENT. Finally we got back in the boat and I discovered that something stung Chris - bad. He had a burning rash on his arm and shoulder. He thinks it's from the rope on the way down. Again, CURRENT. (You normally don't hold onto anything to go down, but it was necessary this time.) I'm buying him a skin.
He was dived out at this point, on account of his burning-hurting arm, so we decided to go to Honeymoon Harbor, which Joel The Boat Guy had told us about when we stopped in the shop on Thursday. He said there were lots and lots of stingrays there and that they were tame. And GOD am I ever happy he told us about it. There were lots of boats there, as he warned there would be... One was a party boat filled with binge drinkers... Girls standing on the boat pouring alcohol into people's mouths in the water. REALLY loud music. But it was so gorgeous we didn't even get annoyed. :) We snorkeled around.. Stingrays were EVERYWHERE. I guess people feed them there, which explains why they come as close as they do. I didn't have any shrimp, sadly. I stayed in the water until all the heat was sucked out of my body.. EASILY an hour. Probably more like two. Ever the dear, Chris went back to the boat to check the weather as it looked like it was going to rain, and then just hung out. His attention span for looking at hermit crabs is much shorter than mine. Later, he said the boat looked so nice since he cleaned the outside of it off. "When did you do that?" I asked. "Back at Honeymoon Harbor." Cleaning his boat off so I could continue to paddle around in the shallows.. SUCH a love.
There were conch shells everywhere that I was checking out... Fish hiding in some, crabs in others, in the very shallow water there were actually CONCHS, and even an OCTOPUS in one. So cool! Often when I would look up from peering into a conch, I would realize that a stingray or two were RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Waiting for shrimp, no doubt. We saw lots of rays even from the boat, and a really cool shark I have to look up.
It was nice. I fed the fish half our oatmeal and some bread and bits of apple and I loved it, maybe more than them. While I was rinsing our breakfast dishes in the water this morning at the marina, the sergeant majors came up and were swimming IN the bowl to eat the leftover bits. It reminded me of Gretchey. :) Then they nipped my hands, a bunch. It was fun and funny, even though it was a tad startling.
The water today was super calm, so the ride back was a million times better than it was the last time. And we managed to avoid the thunderstorms, too, so yay!
Pics to follow soon. Hope to get that computer in shape this week.
